WND EXCLUSIVE

Judicial appointments of homosexuals surge

'Before I took office, only one openly gay judge had been confirmed in history'

Leo Hohmann is a news editor for WND. He has been a reporter and editor at several suburban newspapers in the Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, areas and also served as managing editor of Triangle Business Journal in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Vaughn Walker, the homosexual judge who ruled for homosexual “marriage” in California

President Obama has a pen, a phone and apparently a list of activist homosexual judges ready to appoint to the federal bench who will work to implement his agenda regardless of what Congress or voters decide.

Two of those judges garnered U.S. Senate confirmation on Thursday. Darrin Gayles to the U.S. District Court for Southern District of Florida was confirmed by a vote of 98-0 while Staci Yandle will be seated on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois by a vote of 52-44.

Gayles, a 48-year-old Florida circuit-court judge, becomes the nation’s first openly homosexual black man to be confirmed to the federal bench.

Yandle, 53, an attorney in private practice in Illinois, will become the second black lesbian federal judge and the first in two decades.

“Never before in the course of the history of our state has there been an Article III federal judge who is openly a member of the LGBT community,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said ahead of Yandle’s vote. Durbin said Yandle’s confirmation marks “another important milestone in America’s journey toward equality of opportunity.”

The appointments come just a week before the June 26 one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling that struck down California’s voter-approved ban on gay marriage, known as Prop 8.

At one step in that case, a San Francisco district court judge, Vaughn Walker, struck down Prop 8, with the court system rejecting arguments that his own homosexuality and potential personal benefits from his own ruling created a conflict of interest for him.

Mark Trammell of the pro-family Liberty Counsel said Harry Reid’s decision in November 2013 to change the rules of the Senate, allowing him to file a motion for cloture, which ends debate and forces a vote on all presidential appointees, is now coming home to roost.

“He basically eviscerated the ‘advice and consent’ role of the U.S. Senate,” Trammell told WND. “Today, that’s about all the Senate does. They initiate very little legislation. They basically confirm judges and executive appointees.”

Trammell said Reid has also taken away the minority party’s ability to file amendments when there is legislation on the floor of the Senate.

“It’s his way or the highway, and basically his way is just a rubber stamp for the president,” Trammell said. “Basically, a few of (Obama’s) judges didn’t get confirmed so he changed the rules. This is nothing new in Washington. It’s happened to many other presidents.”

Now, the confirmations seem to be running through the Senate on autopilot.

“Honestly, it seems like just about every day there’s a list of judges or executive appointments,” Trammell said. “The district court, the circuit court, the number Harry Reid is filing for cloture on is just overwhelming, and no matter how much research the Republicans uncover about an appointee, they go through. There’s really not a lot of hope.”

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force issued a statement Wednesday “welcoming the confirmation of two new openly LGBTQ federal judges, Darrin Gayles and Staci Yandle.”

“This is a groundbreaking victory for our goal of a more inclusive federal bench,” said NGLTF Executive Director Rea Carey. “We commend President Obama and the U.S. Senate for making history together and in turn creating a judiciary that more fairly represents the diversity of our nation.”

Obama even boasted at a fundraiser this week for homosexual issues, “Before I took office, only one openly gay judge had been confirmed in history. We have 10 more.”

Last year, Obama’s appointment of state Circuit Judge William L. Thomas as a federal judge for the Southern District of Florida hit a stone wall. He was not renominated this year. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., blocked Thomas’ appointment – after first backing him, along with U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

Thomas’ nomination was never heard by the U.S. Senate because of Rubio’s opposition.

After Gayles’ nomination, Rubio expressed no opposition to his appointment to sit on the Southern District of Florida bench, which hears civil and criminal cases from Key West to Fort Pierce.

On the issue of “gay” marriage, meanwhile, the National Organization for Marriage is petitioning Congress to codify and define marriage “once and for all” with an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“This is the surest way to protect marriage from attacks by radical judges and legislators who respond to the will of the powerful same-sex ‘marriage’ lobby rather than to the will of the people,” the group says on its website. “We need this amendment to firmly protect marriage and prevent a radical redefinition of marriage being foisted on the whole nation.”

The group is planning to hold a “March for Marriage” rally in Washington, D.C., Thursday.

Obama also now has appointed more female judges than any other president, breaking the record previously set by President Bill Clinton. He has also appointed more Hispanic judges than any other president, breaking the record previously held by President George W. Bush. Obama has also appointed more Asian-American judges than all presidents combined and has nominated 12 openly “gay” federal judges. Last month, the Senate confirmed the first-ever Native-American female federal judge in the nation’s history.